Dear Editor, On Monday the Localism Bill was published and now we know that the first person to wield mayoral powers in Birmingham will not be Sion Simon, Ray Egan or Carl Chinn. It will be a councillor, and almost certainly a Conservative one.
This is because the bill states that the election to elevate someone to the post of directly elected mayor will not take place until May 2013.
However, from the moment the bill receives Royal Assent, the leader of Birmingham City Council, currently Conservative Coun Mike Whitby, will become shadow mayor, with all the powers available to existing council mayors given to him.
Meanwhile Labour’s Sion Simon, independent Ray Egan (the two people who have so far declared as candidates) and anyone else who fancies becoming Birmingham’s mayor, will have to kick their heels until 2013 – watching while someone else gets on with doing the job. Even if Labour did manage to take control of the council before 2013 (by no means a certainty) it wouldn’t be Sion Simon who became shadow mayor. It would be the leader of the Labour group on the council, Sir Albert Bore.
Quite what effect that would have on Sion’s chances of ever becoming mayor is anyone’s guess, but I can’t imagine it would help him since Sir Albert’s name is also often touted as a possible Labour mayoral candidate.
And if, in the referendum of 2012, the people of Birmingham decide they don’t want to have a directly elected mayor in 2013 anyway, then all those mayoral wannabes who aren’t on the council will never get their chance – even though one person will have already done the job.
Coun Deirdre Alden
(Con, Edgbaston)
